Apple, the creator of iPods, iPhones and iPads, has surpassed the software giant Microsoft on Wednesday and become the most valuable technology company of the world.

According to a New York Times report, in intraday trading in the afternoon session, Apple scrip gained 1.8 per cent, which offered the company a value of $227.1 billion.

On the other hand, shares of Microsoft lost around one per cent, giving the company a market capitalization of 226.3 billion dollars.

This changing of the guard caps one of the most stunning turnarounds in the history of business, as Apple had been given up for dead only a decade earlier.

However, the speedily growing value attached to Apple by investors also heralds a cultural shift. It seems that consumer tastes have overtaken the needs of business as the leading force shaping technology. (With Inputs from Agencies)